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Saturday, January 16, 2016

Grazing Conference

Ruth and I have just returned from
Wisconsin Dells where I spoke to 325 folks interested in grazing their farm
animals. It was the 24th
annual Grazing Conference that was held January 14-16 and included 39 educational
sessions with information on everything from grass-fed rabbits, pastured pork
production, to dairy grazing, soil health and much more.

I spoke at their Friday evening banquet
and talked with many of these farmers committed to a sustainable approach to agriculture. They are members of an organization called
GrassWorks. Go to their website, www.grassworks.org for details of their
organization. I copied this from their
website:

GrassWorks is a
grassroots membership organization that provides leadership and education to
farmers and consumers for the advancement of managed grass-based agriculture to
benefit present and future generations. As a 501(c)3 non-profit
organization, GrassWorks links farmers with the resources they need to be
successful graziers.

I shared
some of my stories about farm life when I was a kid, when we pastured our dairy
cows, chickens, and hogs, as everyone did in those days. I also talked about what I learned from those
growing up years on the farm—and reminded this group, many of them younger
farmers with their children along, the importance of getting down their stories
of what they were experiencing.

THE OLD
TIMER SAYS: Appears that GrassWorks
might have a handle on the future of agriculture—with an ear to “listening to
the land.”

UPCOMING
EVENTS

January
25, 6:30 p.m. Mt. Horeb Library—History of Cheese making in Wisconsin.

February
13-14. Garden Expo. Alliant Center, Madison.
February 13, 2:15:Wild Flowers, Butterflies, and Other Stories From the
Land. February 14, 1:00 p.m. Film: The
Land With Jerry Apps plus discussion.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial
Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs,
Emmy Winner,A Farm Winter
with Jerry Appsand Jerry
Apps a Farm Story.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including The
Quiet Season(on which the
DVDA Farm Winteris based), as well asRural Wit and WisdomandOld
Farm, (which are related to the DVDJerry
Apps a Farm Story).Also available is Jerry’s new novel,The Great Sand Fracas of Ames
Countyas well asWhispers and Shadowsand his newest nonfiction book,Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.